My Genealogy Hound

Alexander Ralph, a well-known and highly esteemed resident of Polk County, Mo., was born near Gallatin, Sumner County, Tenn., on the 18th of February, 1825, and is a son of Lewis and Mary (Smith) Ralph, who were born, reared, and spent their lives in Sumner County, Tenn., the mother dying when our subject was quite young, and the father in 1877, at the age of seventy-seven years. Both were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and, in early life, he was a Whig in politics, and afterward became a Republican. Alexander Ralph is one of three surviving members of their family of nine children, eight of whom lived to be grown. He received his education in the common schools of Sumner County, and there made his home until 1848, when he came to Missouri, and located in Polk County, and rented land west of Bolivar for about one year. He then spent two years on Twenty-five Mile Prairie, after which he came to his present farm, which consists of 320 acres of as good land as there is in the county. October 15, 1848, he was married to Sarah Ann Kizor, a daughter of John and Fanny Kizor, who spent their lives in Sumner County, Tenn. Mrs. Ralph was born there on the 8th of March, 1827, and she and Mr. Ralph are the parents of eight children: William B.f at home; James A., a ranchman of Nevada; Marcus B., at home; Frances C, wife of John Wilson, a farmer of Polk County, Mo., are living: and John L., Robert P., Mary T., who died in 1886, at the age of twenty-seven years, the wife of David Rogers, of Greene County; and Finis Lee, are deceased. Mr. Ralph has been an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for over thirty years, and in his political views is a stanch Republican. During the late war he served as second lieutenant of Company E of the Enrolled Militia, in Col. Johnson’s regiment.